BEIJING -- Word leaked out slowly, spread by Web-savvy folks on Twitter: Internet porn that once was blocked by Chinese government censors was now openly available.
"Are they no longer cracking down on pornographic websites? A lot of porn sites and forums are accessible," technology blogger William Long wrote on his feed.
Messages like that startled Chinese Web surfers, long accustomed to the authorities' Internet blockades. The country had been in the midst of highly publicized anti-pornography sweeps, and there had been no announcement of any change in government policy.
Yet eight weeks later, the porn sites are still accessible. Still unanswered are questions about whether it's an official change in policy, a technical glitch or some sort of test by the usually disapproving Chinese Internet police.
"This has never been done with the [Chinese] Internet before," said Beijing-based Internet analyst Zhao Jing, who goes by the English name Michael Anti.
Whatever the reason, the change has thrown into sharper relief what many people see as the main mission of China's aggressive Internet censors: blocking sites and content that might challenge the political authority of the communist government. Websites about human rights and dissidents are also routinely banned.
"Maybe they are thinking that if Internet users have some porn to look at, then they won't pay so much attention to political matters," Anti said.
The government has not said why the porn sites were unblocked. Repeated calls to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology went unanswered, and the Ministry of Public Security and State Council Information Office - all involved in Web monitoring - did not respond to faxed requests for comment.
China has the world's largest online population - 420 million - more than the entire U.S. population. While the Internet is the most freewheeling of tightly cosseted media in China, the government has an extensive Internet policing system, from technical filters that block sites based on certain words to human monitors who scan bulletin boards and micro-blogging posts.
Tired of the controls, many Chinese have learned to get around "the Great Firewall," as the system is known.
It's still illegal
Few Chinese will admit to surfing for porn, because it is illegal. Many sites are still inaccessible, and of those, sites that somehow evade control are usually blocked within hours. But the demand is there.
Chinese society's conservative attitudes about sex are rapidly changing, especially among the young, who make up the majority of Internet users. The trial and conviction this year in southern China of a college professor who used the Internet to organize orgies touched off a debate about privacy and sexual freedom.
